Great news - Well for me anyway!!

After spending the whole day dismantling the sternwheel and drive system to replace the toothed belt with a chain drive, I've eventually got the drive system to work on the Suter!!  :yeah

It's still quite stiff, but I hope it will free off as I run it. After testing it on the bench for half an hour, the motor got slightly warm (nothing to worry about), and the battery still had a decent amount of charge - So although I haven't measured it, it can't be drawing massive amounts of current.

If we get some calm weather next week I may even manage to do some on the water testing  

The Suter finally got it's first on the water test today... A short video is included in the Videos section.

It performed better than I had hoped, and handles superbly apart from wide sweeping turns. The rudder servo and linkages are hidden under the drive system inside the boat, and it's a real pain to get to it to alter the rudder throw, so for now I'll just accept the wide turns!